Mary Goelet, Duchess of Roxburghe was the daughter of prominent New Yorkers Mr. and Mrs. Ogden Goelet (née Mary Wilson of the "Marrying Wilsons".)

Biography

The only daughter of Ogden Goelet, Mary, known as "May" within her family circle, married Henry Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe

Henry Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe

Henry John Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe was a Scottish peer. He was the son of James Henry Robert Innes-Ker, 7th Duke of Roxburghe and Anne Emily Spencer-Churchill. His first cousin was Winston Churchill...

 in 1903 at the age of twenty-three. . The 8th Duke and Duchess of Roxburgh settled at Floors Castle

Floors Castle

Floors Castle, on the western outskirts of Kelso, south-east Scotland, is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. Despite its name it is a country house, rather than a fortress. It was built in the 1720s by the architect William Adam for the 1st Duke, possibly incorporating an earlier tower house...

, where Mary decorated the fortress with her own collection of art including a priceless series of 17th century Gobelins tapestries. After ten years of childlessness, Mary gave birth to a son and heir, George Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe

George Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe

George Victor Robert John Innes-Ker, 9th Duke of Roxburghe was the son of Henry John Innes-Ker, 8th Duke of Roxburghe and Mary Goelet. He succeeded his father in 1932....

, who succeeded his father in 1932. At the time of her marriage to the Duke of Roxburghe, Mary Goelet was the wealthiest American heiress, with a dowry of twenty million dollars, exceeded only by Consuelo Vanderbilt

Consuelo Vanderbilt

Consuelo Balsan , was a member of the prominent American Vanderbilt family...

in the wealth brought to the transatlantic marriages of the pre-1914 era.